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Lady Dogs hope to carry momentum from rout of Rebels into Nashville

Georgia's Anne Marie Armstrong (3) comes up with a loose ball in front of Mississippi's Nikki Byrd (22) during an NCAA college basketball game in Oxford, Miss., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman) MAGS OUT NO SALES MANDATORY CREDIT

Hot starts don’t happen very often. So when they do, it’s tempting to try to bottle the good vibes for use later in the season.

Georgia hopes to carry its almost-perfect opening against Ole Miss last game into a second straight road date, this time against Vanderbilt.

“You’ve got to be sharp, you’ve got to be ready to play and you’ve got to be willing to share the basketball to have one of those starts,” Georgia coach Andy Landers said. “You’ve got to pass and catch well. You’ve got to hit all the easy shots, and we did that. Then you’ve got to go to the other end and stay in their grill. I think we got a lot of confidence over there from the way we were defending and keeping them from scoring.”

No. 17-ranked Georgia (16-4, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) travels to Vanderbilt (14-5, 2-4) for a 9 p.m. tipoff today at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn. The last time the Lady Bulldogs took to the floor, they buried Ole Miss with a 30-2 run to start the game and won 61-47.

“Once you have that good feeling like that, you want to go out and do it again,” Georgia forward Tamika Willis said. “So the next time you go out, you want to do everything almost identical to what you did the first time so you can have the same feeling again. As far as defense goes, we went after everything with all we had and got every ball. We wanted it really, really bad. We had the will and the power to fight for it.”

Hot stretches don’t last forever, so the key is how to deal with the cold streak that usually follows. All the run-out baskets and easy-pickings defensive plays vanish, which makes open shots an exercise in perseverance.

“If we could do that every game, that would be great,” Georgia forward Jasmine Hassell said. “But our second half wasn’t that great. They cut the lead on us. But that first half was really enjoyable to play.”

Georgia opened the game with a 30-2 run in the first 10:50 of the first half. But Ole Miss outscored Georgia the rest of the way 45-31 and cut the margin from 28 points to 14.

“We got excited about running in Oxford and probably overdid it,” Landers said. “We tried to play too fast and tried to shoot the ball too fast and tried to make plays too fast. When you jump out there and every shot you’re hitting and you’re getting great shots, it’s easy to get excited and lose your discipline and your decision-making ability. Then the reverse happens and you start missing shots.

“Everything goes together. When you’re hitting all your shots, you feel like you’re playing great defense. When you miss a couple of shots, you start to not play as hard or as well on defense. All that stuff is somewhat contagious if you let it be.”

Fast starts are especially important to Georgia now because of its short bench. The Lady Bulldogs only have eight actives until starting point guard Jasmine James and backup forward Krista Donald return from injury. Although three starters played 39 minutes, they weren’t as tough as the 40 minutes Georgia’s starters played against Kentucky the previous game.

“It’s really important because that means we can substitute a lot more and that helps our legs,” Hassell said. “It helps because we can get into a groove and just play ball. That’s a good thing especially considering that our numbers are short.”

James and Donald are questionable for today’s game at Vanderbilt because of recurring knee injuries. Donald could have played the last two games, but Landers elected to hold her out to speed her recovery. James’ mobility improves every day, but she has also missed the last two games. A likely target date for their return is Sunday’s home game against Tennessee.

In the interim, Georgia would like to bury an opponent with a quick start, so it won’t have to play under as much second-half duress.

“I can’t remember the last time I was involved in something like that — high school maybe or maybe AAU,” Georgia forward Tamika Willis said. “It’s a great feeling, just knowing that everybody came out ready to play. It made everybody anxious to take the score up a little higher and that carried into our offense.”

SERIES: Georgia leads 30-24, but Vanderbilt has won the last four meetings.

LAST MEETING: Vanderbilt won 69-59 in Athens last season.

SEASON AT A GLANCE: Georgia bounced back from a loss to Kentucky last Thursday to beat Ole Miss 61-47 on Sunday. Vanderbilt won its first 10 games, but is 5-4 in its last nine, including its current three-game losing streak.

NOTEWORTHY: Georgia’s starting point guard Jasmine James is questionable against Vanderbilt after respraining her right knee against Mississippi State. Krista Donald is questionable after reaggravating a preseason knee injury before the Kentucky game. ... Georgia’s win at Ole Miss insured its 33rd straight winning season in Andy Landers’ 33 campaigns with the Lady Bulldogs. ... Georgia has won three straight road games since losing by 29 at Tennessee on Jan. 5. ... Jasmine Hassell will be playing close to home. She is from Lebanon, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. ... Landers has briefly experimented with Hassell and Tamika Willis playing side-by-side on the front line the last couple of games. ... Meredith Mitchell’s 14 rebounds against Ole Miss was a team high this season. ... Georgia outrebounded Vanderbilt 54-38 and had 25 offensive boards that turned into 24 second-chance points. ... Vanderbilt’s Christina Foggie is No. 2 in the SEC in scoring at 17.7 points a game and Tiffany Clarke is sixth in the league in rebounding at 7.1 a game. ... Vanderbilt has lost three in a row — 87-64 to Tennessee, 69-47 at Arkansas and 65-60 in overtime at home against South Carolina . ... The Commodores’ Jasmine Lister scored 22 points in the last game Georgia and Vanderbilt played.

Lady Dogs hope to carry momentum from rout of Rebels into Nashville- By